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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The Lawyer vs. The Writer

I've been a total bum, dissing my own blog to work on my novel - feverishly, I might add...

I expected my last revisions to Client Relations to be done by now. But no-oh-oh!! I'm on a tear.

Anyway, considering how distracted I've been (really, since November, when my latest big push began), I thought I'd re-post one of my earliest posts. It's very apropos for me right now...

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The Lawyer vs. The Writer

Lawyer: The parties executed a separation agreement on June 25, 2009, approximately two years from the commencement of the action for divorce.

Writer: Paul grasped his pen as if it were a bayonet. Across the conference table, Elaine leaned her chin on her hand and suppressed a yawn at the sight of her husband's consternation. What's the big deal, she wondered? After two years, just write your goddamn initials underneath mine. Every page, just like the lawyers had instructed. She heaved a theatrical sigh as he finally scribbled his name under hers on the last page. Finally. All the lawyers had to do was not smear the ink from their notary stamps all over the page. And fill in the date: June 25, 2009. The hemorrhaging was about to end.

It's a rough transition to move away from that 'just the facts, ma'am" style. And just when I think I've got it right, boom! I revert right back to the clinical recitation, instead of showing a scene from the inside out...

Most lawyers who think of themselves as really good writers - me being one of them, ha! - are clueless that excellent brief-writing skills (i.e., concise factual statements, tight legal arguments, distilled case precedent descriptions woven into how the law applies to THESE facts) have zero zippo nothing to do with writing outstanding fiction. Again, I'm one of those clueless lawyers, too!

About Me

A matrimonial lawyer since the late 1980's, I've been reincarnated as a sleep-deprived writer. Hmmmm...Cruel and inhuman treatment fits into this picture somewhere.
For those interested in more formal creds: I'm a double Georgetown graduate (BA and JD), a proud Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers since 1994, and listed in Best Lawyers in America since 2004. I've had quite a few articles published, and given lots of lectures, oriented mostly to attorneys.
I'd like to be viewed with something less than dread and dismay by my fellow human beings.